Liquid dispensing apparatus



A. L GR'ISE LIQUID DISPENSING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 25, 1943 INVENTO ALI'REDL. G

lP/SE I ATTOR EYS Oct. 31, 1944; A L, GRISE 2,361,684

LIQUID DISPENSING APPARATUS Filed Feb. 25, 1943 2 SheetsSheet 2 \NVENTOR ,4/r' ez12 L. G/ /sz 1 u, KTToRNEYs Patented Oct. 31, 1944 LIQUID DISPENSING APPARATUS Alfred L. Gris, Springfield, Mass. assignor to Gilbert & Barker Manufacturing Company. West Springfield, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application February 25, 1943, Serial No. 477,036

5. Claims. (or. 222- 52) This invention relates to improvements in liquid dispensing apparatus; such for example as that custbmarily used for dispensing measured quantities of gasoline and the like.

position.

its entire range.

by static pressure.

invention 2 Fig. Zis asectional elevational View, drawn to a larger scale, of the combined pump and air separator unit shown in Fig. 1 and showing the application of the regulating valve thereto;

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken on the The The meter drives through a shaft IS a The pump consists of a The rotor The invention has for its object the provisio 5 of improved means for preventing chattering line 33 of Fig. 2; and of the valve of the hose nozzle, when such valve Fig. 4-, is a sectional view showing a different is closed down to an extent such as to give a form of housing for the regulating valve. trickling flow, and for enabling the nozzle valve Referring to these drawings; there is shown to be easily and smoothly operated throughout conventionally in Fig. 1 a measuring and disits entire range from fully open to fully closed pensing system for gasoline and the like.

liquid is drawn up from a low-level supply tank It has been heretofore proposed to provide in ID through a su p pe having e usual the hose nozzle itself a throttling valve in addifoot valve l2, and forced through a meter l3 tion to the usual nozzle valve for the purpose interposed in a discharge conduit, which inof cutting' down the flow to the main nozzle cludes pipe l4, flexible hose l5 and an interposed valve when the latter is closed down to a very Sight glass a Well s pa sages in the sep small flow with the object of avoiding hammerto be described. On the delivery end of the hose ing or chattering of the nozzle valve under such is a nozzle ll of usual form having a normally conditions. It has also been proposed to provide closed valve which may be opened by a hand the hose nozzle with a valve-actuating handle lever l8. The nozzle valve is arran as shown affording extra leverage for controlling the valve, n e an Patent 0. 3 3 dated May when closed down to minimum flow. Both these 1926. provisions require the use of a special hose nozzle. suitable register 2|] which may show the cost This invention is characterized in that a and/or the qu ty of the liquid dispensedthrottling valve is provided at some intermediate nterp d ween the su on p pe I l a d meter point in the discharge line and not at the end I3 is a casin 22 which houses a p driven of such line, as in the hose nozzle and in accordby suitable means indicated in part in Fig. 1 by ance with the prior art. The dispensing appathe belt 23 and pulley 24. The casing also houses ratus can thus be used with any form of nozzle a separator for freeing the gasoline from air irrespective of whether or not it contains any before delivery of the gasoline to the meter. of the aforesaid special provisions. A simple in The pump and separator are best shown in expensive form of nozzle can be used. The in- Fig. 2. The housing is partitioned off to form a vention is intended to render the nozzle valve pump chamber 26 at one end of the housing; an operable smoothly and without chattering over inlet c amber 21 located at the base of the Th i nti i l haraehousing and communicating at one end with terized in that the throttling valve may be housed Suction pipe H and at the other end with the in a casing of large volume. such as the air sepapu p C a Separating be 28 rerator for example, wherein the velocity of the e ing t e discharge from e P p Outlet liquid is reduced to such an extent that the chamber 29 were dam 30; and a liquid ethrottling valve is not subject to shockv and hamcovery chamber 3|. mer action, as it would be if placed in the hose rotor 32 mounted eccentrically in the pump nozzle, due to the momentum of the fast flow- Chambe and C y d y d e vanes 33 ing stream in the hose and nozzle, but is operated to engage the walls of such chamber. smoothly and gradually substantially entirely has a shaft 34 for connection to the aforesaid driving means. The pump draws liquid from These objects will best be understood as the p pe' l through chamber 2! and forces t out detailed description proceeds and they will be through passage 29, where it flows over dam 30. pointed out in the appended claims. into chamber 28. Here the velocity of the liquid The invention will be disclosed with reference is greatly lowered and separation of air and to the accompanying drawings, in which: gases from the liquid occurs in the known man- Fig. 1 is a diagrammatical view of a liquid n rthe air-free liquid passin o the o t m measuring and dispensing system embodying the of the chamber 28 and being forced out through a pipe 35 to the meter. Air and gases and usually nozzle I! closed, pressure builds up in the system. because the only outlet is the restricted vent 36.

To limit the pressure, it is usualito provideaa spring-pressed bypass valve, such as shown at 39 in Fig. 2, which opens when a predetermined pressure is reached and interconnects the suction and discharge sides of the pump as, in this case, by interconnecting chambers 21 and 28. A substantial pressure, say 18 to 20 lbs. per square inch,

is built up in the chamber 28 and in the discharge conduit before valve 39 opens. A somewhat less but stillarelatively heavy pressure is also necessary when the valve of nozzle I! is open in order to effect the discharge of the measured liquid at the'desired high rate'of say 12 to 15 gallons per minute.

With the heavy pressure used and the high velocityfiow obtained'in gasoline dispensing systems of the type described, it is diflicult to control theflow by use of the usual hand lever l8 and the usual valve at the nozzle ll; When'the operator attempts to throttle down the flow, the liquid moving at high velocity and under considerable pressure tends to drive the valve to its seat with considerable force and the operator must exert a great deal of .force on the handle in order to'hold the valve open. The tendency is for the valve to close sharply, setting up a hammer action in the liquid by quick stoppage of the high velocity stream. The operator then has to exert much force in order to open the valve and usually he opens it too much. Then. when he relaxes his grip on the handle to allow the at some place in the discharge conduit other thanthe nozzle. Such valve may conveniently be located in the air separator, for example, and is so shown in Fig. 3. The lower end of outlet pipe 35 is suitably closed, as bythe flanged plug 40 and the inlet consists of a series of holes 4i formed in..the peripheral wall of the pipe. The aggregate area of these holes is at least equal to the cross sectional area of pipe 35. A sleeve 42 is slidably mounted on pipe 35 and has holes 43 therein adapted normally to register with the holes 4|. A spring 44 holds this sleeve valve in its upper position which is defined by pins 45 fixed in pipe 35 and riding in slots 46 in the sleeve; The interengaging pins and slots prevent rotation of the sleeve valve, The sleeve valve can move downwardly until it abutsthe flange on plug 48 as a stop and in such position the holes 43are completely out of register with holes 4| and communication between pipe 35 and chamber 28 is completely out ofi. The sleeve valve 42 carries on its lower end a piston 41 which slides in'a cylinder 48 upstanding from'the floor of chamber 28. Thiscylinder at its upper end is open to, and in free communication with, cham= ber 28." Thelower end of the cylinder is vented by apassage 49 to the suction-chamber 21. An

adjusting screw 50, threaded into the lower wall of chamber 28 and held in its various positions of adjustment by a lock nut 5|, carries on its upper end a seat 52 for the spring 44. A cap 53 covers the head of screw 50 andprevents leakage from the chamber 28 by way of the screw.

In the dispensing operation, the sleeve valve 42 is held open by spring 44, whenever the valve in the hose nozzle is fully open. On partial closure of the nozzle valve, there will be a rise in pressure in the system and the increased pressure, acting on piston 47, will move the latter and the sleeve valve downwardly, thereby partially closing the inlet holes 4| and thus throttling down the flow to the hose nozzle. The force acting't'o close the sleeve valve is more nearly that of static pressure than that which acts on the nozzle'valve. The velocity of the liquid is purposely slowed down as much as possible in the air separator in order to make the liquid as nearly quiescent as possible and to obtain efficient separation of air from the liquid. In the nozzle, however, the valve when moved to'ward closed position, arrestsa fast: moving stream of liquid and the result is a tendency to force the valve to its seat with a hammer action. The momenturn of the liquid causes the trouble. In the separator, the piston is not acted on in-the same way because the velocity of the liquid is too low. The partialclosing of the sleeve valve 42 thus reduces the'fiow to the hose and nozzle and avoids the hammer action on the nozzle valve. The flow to the hose will be cut down more or less in proportion to the closing of the nozzle valve. The greatest difiiculty ordinarily occurs when the operator attempts to get merely-a trickling flow from the nozzle. The operator relaxes his grip on handle l8 enough to allow the valve to move almost to its seat. The sudden stoppage of the fast moving stream drives the valve to its seat with a hammer blow. The operator then tries to open the valve just slightly but considerable force is necessary and the valve is moved too far and will again be driven closed. A very undesirable chatteringaction of the valve results. As above set forth, attempts have been made to overcome this trouble by the use of valve-actuating handles afiording extra high leverage, efiective near the start of the valve opening and near the end of the valve-closing movement; also by the use of special throttling valves in the nozzle. In each case, a special and relatively expensive nozzle is required. My invention enables the provision of a gasoline dispensing apparatus with which any kind of nozzle may be used. Special and costly nozzles are not necessary. Furthermore, the location of the throttling valve as shown herein rather than in the nozzle itself is far more efiective because, as above set forth, the throttling valve is not subjected to the momentum of a fast moving stream of liquid. It can be moved gradually and smoothly by the pressure rise without shock' or hammer action. The result is that an ordinary hose nozzle, without any special provisions such as have been above set forth, may be operated easily and smoothly in varying the flow throughout the available range and without chatinside it a tube 35' depending from its top wall in line with the outlet portion of pipe 14. This tube corresponds to the tube 35 in Fig. 3 and is similarly constructed. Upon the tube is mounted a similar sleeve valve, similarly actuated and similarly adjustable. The parts in Fig. 4 which correspond with those shown in Fig. 3 have been given the same reference numerals with the addition of a prime. The only difference in the Fig. 4 construction is that the lower part of cylinder 48 is vented to the atmosphere instead of the suction passage and that the casing is of different shape. It is assumed that the upper portion of easing 60-tl1e portion marked Gl-is extended rearwardly and forwardly to afford a chamber of large volume in order to cut down the velocity of the liquid. The advantages of the invention may be had in part, if the velocity of the liquid in the casing in which the throttling valve is located is not substantially reduced but the best results are had where such casing is of large enough volume, as the air separator is, to slow down the velocity to a point where there will be no hammer action on the throttling valve.

What I claim is:

1. The combination in a liquid dispensing apparatus having a liquid discharge conduit terminating with a nozzle having a spring-closed valve and a hand lever for manually opening the valve, and means for forcing liquid at high velocity through said conduit, of a casing interposed in said conduit and affordinga chamber having a cross sectional area many times that of said conduit for substantially reducing the velocity of the liquid, a valve in said chamber controlling the passage of liquid out of said chamber, means for holding said valve in open position against the normal pressureprevailing in said conduit during dispensing of liquid through said conduit and nozzle while the nozzle valve is fully open, and means in said chamber responsive to a rise in pressure in said conduit and nozzle when the nozzle valve is partly closed and the pressure in said conduit rises above said normal pressure to partly close the first-named valve and cut down the flow from said chamber to the conduit and nozzle and to close the first-named valve in pro portion to the closing of the nozzle valve.

2. The combination in a liquid dispensing apparatus having a liquid discharge conduit terminating with a nozzle having a spring-closed valve and a hand lever for manually opening the valve,

and means for forcing liquid at high velocity through said conduit, of a casing interposed in said conduit and affording a chamber having a cross sectional area many times that of said conduit for substantially reducing the velocity of the liquid, a valve in said chamber controlling the passage of liquid out of said chamber, a cylinder having one end communicating with said chamber, a piston in the cylinder connected to said valve and tending to be moved by liquid pressure in a direction such as to move said valve toward closed position, a spring tending to move the valve toward open position and to hold it in such position while normal pressure exists in the conduit terminating with a valved hose nozzle,

an air separator interposed in said conduit; means for forcing liquid through said conduit, separator and nozzle when .the nozzle valve is open; a valve controlling the outflow of liquid from said separator, resilient means for maintaining said second-named valve open against the normal pressure of liquid in said conduit when the nozzle valve is fully open during dispensing, and means responsive to a rise in pressure of liquid in the separator when the pressure rises above said normal pressure because of the parial closing of, the nozzle valve to move said second-named valve toward closed position and decrease the flow to said nozzle.

4. In liquid dispensing apparatus, a discharge conduit terminating with a valved hose nozzle, an air separator interposed in said conduit; means for forcing liquid through said conduit, separator and nozzle when the nozzle valve is open; an outlet pipe for the separator extending deep down into the separating chamber thereof, a cylinder in said chamber having one end open to said chamber, a piston in saidcylinder, a valve for said pipe connected to said piston and actuated toward closed position by the pressure of liquid in said chamber on said piston, and a spring for moving the valve toward open position; said spring holding said valve in open position while normal dispensing pressure exists in said conduit terminating with a valved hose nozzle,

an air separator interposed in said conduit; means for forcing liquid through said conduit, separator and nozzle when the nozzle valve is open; an outlet pipe for the separator extending deep .down into the separating chamber thereof, said pipe having a closed lower end and inlet openings in itsperipheral wall, a cylinder in said chamber coaxial with said pipe and having one end open to said chamber, a piston in said cylinder, a sleeve valve slidably mounted on the pipe and having openings to register with the openings in said pipe when the valve is in open position, said sleeve valve being connected to said piston and actuated toward closed position by the pressure of liquid in said chamber on said piston, and a spring for moving the valve toward open position; said spring holding said valve in open position while normal dispensing pressure exists in said chamber, conduit and nozzle while the nozzl valve is fully open; a rise in pressure caused by partial closure of the nozzle valve causing the piston to move the valve toward closed 

